December 12, 2013
11:00 AM (EST)

News Release Number: STScI-2013-55

December 12, 2013: Though it's five times farther from the Sun than Earth, and therefore so cold that ice
becomes as hard as rock, Jupiter's moon Europa may be the first place to go to look for
extraterrestrial life. Ever since the moon, which superficially resembles a cracked
eggshell, was photographed close-up by the Voyager space probe, scientists have been
intrigued by its potential as a niche for life.

For over the past 30 years it has been hypothesized that the icy crust covers a
subsurface ocean. Where there is water there could be life. Now NASA's Hubble
Space Telescope has found something the Jovian probes may have missed, plumes of water
vapor leaking off into space near the moon's south pole. Astronomers do not know yet if
these gas plumes are connected to subsurface liquid water or not. This venting doesn't
seem unique. In 2005, NASA's Cassini orbiter discovered similar water vapor plumes
spewing off of the tiny moon Enceladus, 1 billion miles away.